He should. He fabricated the idea that Phil knew of Ross's illness and therefore was being cruel with his negativity.

No Mark......He did not fabricate anything! Everyone who watched, 'knew' that regardless of 'who' it was, someone very close to Andy was desperately ill, and that Andy was really cut up about it! He was in tears for heaven sake and by his 'brain farts' remark, 'insensitive' is 'exactly' what Boogers was!

It's the first week of the season, a lot of top players underperformed this week, including djokovic himself losing to tomic which would have got him an early exit if he was in brisbane and not the hopman cup.

And did he not have "brain farts" in the US open and still won it? i really do not understand this perception people have that Andy has to be totally infallible every tournament he plays just to make us all happy.

I'm not excusing Boogers, but hasn't it occurred to anyone that being negative could be his coping mechanism? Perhaps some of the older members might recall the equally negative, and frequently rude, comments made by Clydey and Joe, both of whom seem to have disappeared, for a while anyway. If you don't like people's comments, then why read them? After all you soon get to know who the culprits are.

Yes Aileen.....it occurred to me a long time ago, which is why I used to defend him and I believe I said so at the time!

What people watching his matches have achieved means the square root of f**k all. People comment on his performances, it's not a crime. If he plays badly or has a poor spell people will pick up on it. It's realism, instead of blindly happy clapping everything and pretending he is completely fautless.

Personally I've been quite positive all week, bar getting a little worried during the first round match when he was playing quite dreadful for a spell. But yeah, how dare anyone observe a poor patch in a match, let's just wilfully ignore reality and only comment on things he does well.

Nothing wrong with observing a poor spell or performance whatsoever.

Of course it's not a crime to comment on his performances, be they good or bad, but there has to be 'balance' and you are only looking at one side of the coin here! The 'realism' is that we are fans and as such, we are supposed to 'support'! That's why we are called supporters! Surely if there's going to be criticism, there should be, if not praise, then support as well......even if it's just a 'C'mon Andy'? I challenge you to go to the 2012 US Open Final match thread and read it through.......see if you can find the 'balance'! Everyone who could be was online!

He's a professional sportsman competing on a global stage televised to millions. Of course people are going to comment on how he plays, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with noting when he's not playing that well, and it's quite frankly a little bit odd how many people get angry at others for daring to even mention if he hasn't been absolutely perfect.

He is a human being! There is absolutely nothing wrong with people commenting that he is not playing well. There's a massive difference between acknowledging he's not playing well and ripping the piss and making stupid and useless remarks. This is my point.

Murray's performances this week were punctuated by periods of sloppy play and lost concentration. Against better quality opposition (such as one might find at a slam), he might not get away with it.

Characterising this as suffering from "brain farts" seems to be a perfectly acceptable thing to do, especially if the nature of his friends problem hadn't at the time been revealed.

So, tireless defenders of Murray, why don't you save the faux-rage for when I do something properly contentious?

Indeed.

Never mind about doing something 'properly contentious'.....if this really 'is' a coping mechanism, why not give him a bit of support or encouragement when he needs it.......praise even when he's doing well! You know......just for a bit of variety!

Oi! I'm in Australia, therefore not finding much time to comment! Back home at the weekend though. Saw a big chunk of the final at a reasonable afternoon hour. Thought Murray played well in passages and that Dimitrov wouldn't let him have it all his own way.

Anyway, I'm not as bad as the other two, am I? For me, negativity is a coping mechanism but there should be far less of it now that Andy has broken his Slam duck.

I wondered where you'd got to! 'All the best' to you and your's in 2013 and hoping you're right about the 'less negativity'!

My thoughts exactly ruthie!! Andy just won his first tournament of the year, we should be rejoicing, anyone new checking this out will think we are all crackpots. We r all meant to be on here because we are supporters of murray.

This thread should have been close long ago. Members bickering amongst each other, people leaving... not good. Perhaps an admin, or mod if the site has any active ones (I'll be one if it doesn't) also needs to talk via PM to the people who were either upset or apparently cause this whole argument.... but please Mark, or someone, close this thread.

Well, to be fair, Joe is not a negative person in general. He has his temper but not a negative person. Clydey is rarely here so he's not a regular negative person. lol. boogers, of course, lives for these moments. The worse Andy plays, the better it is for him. It's a double delight! lol

Oi! I'm in Australia, therefore not finding much time to comment! Back home at the weekend though. Saw a big chunk of the final at a reasonable afternoon hour. Thought Murray played well in passages and that Dimitrov wouldn't let him have it all his own way.

Anyway, I'm not as bad as the other two, am I? For me, negativity is a coping mechanism but there should be far less of it now that Andy has broken his Slam duck.

Oh hello Joe, or should I say Jospeh - long time no hear from you! Shame you can't stay in Oz for the tennis. No you were never really as bad as the other two - and anyway I think quite a few of us, myself included, can sometimes get pretty negative during Andy's matches simply because we actually care for him and want him to succeed. If we didn't care, we wouldn't give a damn.

I'm hoping too though that there'll be less negativity around now that Andy has won his maiden Slam, but if this thread is anything to go by, then I despair. Hopefully it's just a post-Festive hangover.

This thread should have been close long ago. Members bickering amongst each other, people leaving... not good. Perhaps an admin, or mod if the site has any active ones (I'll be one if it doesn't) also needs to talk via PM to the people who were either upset or apparently cause this whole argument.... but please Mark, or someone, close this thread.

PE if you feel so strongly about this, then why not contact Mark direct? I think that perhaps the right place for these last few pages is 'Off-topic discussions' since they have nothing whatsoever to do with Andy, and in fact are really a bit of an insult both to him and Dimitrov.

I have not directly followed the argument, but I think for the good of the site we should all calm down because if people start leaving then other people may not feel the need to join because they are viewing the various members now arguing.